East Grand Forks native cheering on daughter at Women's College World Series
· Yahoo Sports
May 29—GRAND FORKS — Corey Grassel played hockey and American Legion baseball in East Grand Forks, where he graduated from Senior High in 1989.
Now, though, Grassel is all in on softball.
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His daughter, Gretta Grassel, plays for Mississippi State, a program making its first-ever appearance at the Women's College World Series, which is taking place this weekend in Norman, Okla.
Gretta is a sophomore outfielder from Boscobel, Wis. Mississippi State lost 8-0 to Texas Tech in Thursday's opener in Norman, where Corey and his wife Penny have been on the road to take in the action.
"I made the switch from a baseball guy to a softball coach," Grassel said. "I was asked (in Wisconsin) to help out, and I guess in our small town there weren't many that knew about baseball and softball."
Gretta is the youngest of three girls.
"It was a thing where we didn't have a lot of sports where they grew up, and you either ran track or played softball," Grassel said. "My kids enjoyed the softball side of things and had some success at it. Gretta had some exposure and success at a young age and so that kind of moved her recruiting levels a little faster than her sisters.
"Once they got in (softball), they got hooked."
Boscobel, Penny's hometown, is a town of about 3,000 in the southwest corner of Wisconsin with no stoplights and graduating classes typically under 60.
"We started out playing some smaller club softball," Grassel said. "Gretta was hooked at 10. She worked her way through different levels of travel ball. She was picked up on the radar by Mississippi State during one of our trips to Colorado."
After her freshman season was sidetracked by a thumb injury, Gretta has played in 39 games this year as a sophomore with seven starts. Late in the season, Gretta received additional playing time and hit a two-run home run in the NCAA Tournament to beat No. 12 Oregon on May 16. She also started against Oklahoma in the Super Regional.
Corey, now 55, played two seasons of hockey in the USHL with the North Iowa Huskies and scored more than 35 points both years (1989-90, 1990-91). He then played four years of college hockey at Minnesota State Mankato, where he scored 46 career goals. After that, he played one season with the Madison Monsters in the minors.
Corey's brother Chad has been an administrator, teacher and coach in East Grand Forks for many years. Chad's daughter, Chelsey Berg, is currently the Green Wave head softball coach.
Corey, who works as a mortgage underwriter, started coaching Gretta when she was 8 years old through high school. He still umpires high school, college and summer travel leagues.
Last year, Gretta played summer ball for the Madison Nightmares of the Northwoods League. The Grand Forks Spitfires will join that league this summer.
Gretta plans to play for Madison again this summer, although she's going to take time off this summer to have a break and attend her sister's wedding in July.